CHAPTER XIX 



PRIZE PICKINGS 



Garden Bookkeeping. — Some of the account books, 

 while excellent as prize efforts, contain too much work 

 for use every year. The best practical books are those 

 which are simple, yet enable the gardener to know just 

 what he is doing. There should be a place for each 

 crop by itself as well as an account for the garden as a 

 whole. All dates^ costs and varieties should be re- 

 corded, as well as all receipts. It is a convenience to 

 have all crops worked out in acre terms. There should 

 be plenty of room for jottings, a simple pen map or 

 chart of the garden and an index to pages. Books 

 consisting of detachable sheets allow spoiled sheets to 

 be removed and permit also of the use of a typewriter. 

 A page from an account of this kind is shown on Page 

 279, reduced to one-third. It is from the book of H. B. 

 McAfee of Missouri, a model piece of bookkeeping, 

 although for other reasons not a prize winner. Both 

 in their accounts and in letters written since, very many 

 contestants speak of the great value of a good garden 

 account, as a guide for the following year. 



It is likewise of interest to note that although most 

 of the contestants were practical farmers or their wives, 

 the per cent of well-kept and systematic bookkeeping 

 is quite a high one. The contest was not one of book- 

 keeping, yet a large proportion of the best gardeners 

 know thoroughly the art of keeping accounts in ship- 

 shape manner. 



Working the Soil and Crops. — In planting and cul- 

 tivating my garden, I have depended very largely on 



